For Real
by chocolatemintkisses
Summary: I never really grew attached to anyone in my life. Of course,that could be the result of living in foster care for ten years of my life,but something seemed so genuine,so real about those bright eyes and that sparkling smile.
1. Chapter 1

For Real

Chapter One

I never really grew attached to anyone in my life. Of course, that could be the result of living in foster care for ten years of my life. You would have thought that I could have gotten adopted since I was only six when my parents died…but I didn't. I've heard what some couples had said about me, "Lifeless eyes…no emotion." "We want a child that smiles…one that's happy." I wasn't concentrated on getting adopted. No, I was concentrated on studying hard so I could actually do something with my life once I was kicked out of foster care. Lots of the families had been nice but it had seemed forced, necessary. I didn't really have any high hopes for the next one I was going to.

Stepping outside of my social worker's car I grabbed my duffel bag and made my way up to the door to enter my new "home." My 16th home. Raising my hand to knock I jolted when the door swung open and some obnoxious, blonde thing barreled into me.

"Oh you're so cute! You must be my new daughter, right, Haruhi!" squishing me between his arms I looked back to see my social worker's distorted with confusion. Yeah, same here. How the heck could this person be an adult? He only looked about one or two years older than me. Then I saw a real adult step out behind the thing that was attached to me like a leech.

"Hi, you must be Haruhi. Welcome to your new home. I've decided that you'll stay with me for the next couple of months, in fact you're welcome to stay your remaining two years until your eighteen if that's alright with you." spoke a calm soothing voice.

Wrenching myself out from under that idiot's arms I gave a small smile and introduced myself. "Haruhi Fujioka ma'am."

Taking in her features, I wondered if I had met her somewhere before. She reminded me of my mom. With straight, dark brown hair parted to the left that was cut a little above her shoulders she smiled back at me as she beckoned me to come inside. She was skinny with a pale complexion and a warm looking face, like she could be nice to anyone.

With a wave my social worker, Mrs. Diana, walked back down the sidewalk and into her car. She knew that I would call her if I had any problems. After all, I had only known her for about ten years. The door shut with a clack as the blonde boy timidly walked over to me. Now that I had a better look at him I could see that most people would classify him as good-looking. Sparkling violet eyes that were framed by porcelain white skin which was covered with a bunch of golden-blonde hair.

Reaching out his hand he smiled, "Tamaki Suoh."

As I reached out my hand to shake his it was intercepted by two hands…that were from different bodies that looked exactly the same. Wait, twins. With what you couldn't exactly call a smile but you couldn't really call a smirk they both introduced themselves. On the right was Hikaru, on the left was Kaoru. Both with spiked reddish-orange hair and amber colored eyes that glinted in the light. "Nice to meet you," they both said in unison. I was about to reply except I heard sniffling in the corner which was coming from Tamaki.

Waving the twins left to go "console" him which really looked like teasing him to me. I might have helped except that I was then greeted by a kid that looked to be about 10. I might have smiled except that he was riding on the shoulders of another guy. A really big guy.

Grinning he said, "I'm Honey and this is Mori!" "Hey." grunted the guy who was holding him.

They looked as if they were complete opposites. Honey being blonde and perky, but Mori was black haired and…well…not exactly perky. Walking away I found that there was one more person behind them.

I looked at him for a moment before introducing myself. I was met with steel eyes that showed absolutely no emotion that was framed with silver glasses. Giving me what could only seem like a charming smile to others he stuck out his hand, "Kyoya Ootori."

"Uh, Haruhi Fujioka. Nice to meet you." I almost whispered. There was something about this guy that seemed…scary. Shuddering I then started to look around the house since I was still stuck beside the door. Beside the door lay a bunch of shoes. Then there was a staircase that led upstairs. In front of me was a very homey looking living room. Cream and brown colored cloth couches that sat behind a coffee table that was positioned in front of a T.V. I'm sure behind that was a kitchen and then a laundry room and more of the usual stuff.

Clearing her throat I saw the lady clear her throat. Ms. Stevenson I believe her name was. Smiling she said, "If you follow me I'll show you to your room."

Grabbing my duffel bag I started to head over to my room to be intercepted by once again, you guessed it, Tamaki.

"Let me help you!" Tamaki practically squealed with delight as I reluctantly let him grab my duffel bag. He then continued to skip down a hallway while smiling.

Okay then. It seemed as if he was mocking me or something because he was being so nice, but something seemed so genuine, so real about those bright eyes and that sparkling smile. Perplexed by the strange actions of my fellow housemates I could only follow Tamaki as the twins started to push me towards my room down a hallway covered with pictures of the five guys that I had just met. There were pictures ranging from when they were all about eight to right now. All of them were in high school now I would assume based on looks. I guess that I would go to the same school as them too, just like every other home.

Suddenly, I was shoved into a room that was painted a pastel green with a bed that had pink sheets that was tucked into a corner of the room. A couple feet away was a small writing desk that I could do my homework on.

"Wow, I get a whole room to myself?" I asked the other boys. Usually, I had to share the other rooms I lived in with other foster kids.

"Well," the twins said, "Tamaki and us used to share this room, but then he thought it would be "improper" if we slept in the same room as a lady." they said as the shrugged their shoulders and looked pointedly at Tamaki.

"Honestly, I don't really mind you sleeping in the same room as me. I mean, it's just a room." I said as I sat down on the bed and looked at the now blushing Tamaki. Then, there was an explosion.

"I specifically told you twins not to tell her about this. Didn't we discuss this right before she came? It's called a secret!" he screamed as he sank down into a little ball near the door. Looking out of the corner of his eye at me he muttered, "Really, you don't mind us sleeping in the same room as you?"

Shaking my head I received smiles from the twins, more blushing from Tamaki, Kyoya was writing in a notebook for some reason, and grins from Honey, Mori, and Ms. Stevenson. As they clustered around me asking me questions about myself I answered each of them as patiently as I could while smiling. These people were different, I could tell that much. They were each genuine in their emotions. Maybe this family would be for real this time.


	2. Chapter 2

For Real

Chapter Two

I woke up to the sound of sizzling bacon and pancakes in the kitchen as the smell wafted into my room. My roommates gently nudged my shoulder to wake me up for the day. As the light slowly filtered through the window waking me up…yeah right. It was a couple of days into summer break, a week after I had walked into my new home. You really want to know how I get woken up? Um, let's see…well one day I woke up because I felt someone near me. It was Tamaki standing over me with a camera trying to take a picture of my sleeping face. What the heck? And then there was Hikaru and Kaoru who decided to play a prank on me one day, that's when I got a pitcher of water dumped on me right after I had woken up. Oh, and there was Honey (I figured out that that wasn't his real name, just a nickname.) who was trying to serve me breakfast in bed one day but ended up spilling pancakes and syrup all over my bed, my pajamas, and myself. Today was no exception. It was a Friday, and like I said it had been a week since I had come here. It was actually really nice here. There was a comfy living room with couches, a kitchen, a laundry room, two bathrooms, and an office. There were three bedrooms in all. One for Mrs. Diana, one for Mori, Honey, and Kyoya and one for Hikaru, Kaoru, Tamaki, and me. I was even starting to like my new "family." Just after one week I could already tell the difference between Hikaru and Kaoru even though they always tried to trick me. They rest of them treated me just like family that they had known for the past ten years. Oh, I had also learned that the twins were in my grade, 9th, Tamaki and Kyoya were in 10th, and Mori and Honey were in 12th. We were going to go to school together… fun, fun.

Suddenly, I heard screaming. Not just normal screaming, but scared screaming. Jolting upright in bed I looked towards my alarm clock. It was about eight in the morning. That meant that Mrs. Diana had already left for work. She was a nurse that worked at the local hospital. There were gifts from patients that liked her all over the house. In every room, in mine there was a small picture of a baby that she had helped to deliver beside the door. Which was slammed shut and locked as Tamaki fell onto the ground panting and covered in red. Oh my God. Was that blood?

Jumping out of my bed I ran over to him and asked, "Are you okay?" Gently, I touched the red spot on his chest and…it felt like water.

As he looked over at me with his curious violet eyes he blinked once and tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Then, I heard banging on the door. It was Hikaru and Kaoru. "Oh come on, don't hide in there Tono! Are you too scared!" shouted Hikaru. "Yeah, you have to have Haruhi protect you!"

Confused with a determination to figure out what was happening, I moved Tamaki out of the doorway and opened the door. That's when I got red food coloring mixed with water sprayed on me along with a handful of flour thrown into my face. Gritting my teeth I opened my eyes and glared at two shocked red-headed twins staring at me in shock.

Using my hands to try and get the flour out of my hair I heard Kyoya come up the stairs. "Oh, what you done this time?"

"What is this?" I said as I tried to keep my voice as calm as I could.

Stuttering the twins opened and closed their mouths. They had done something like this to me before. Well, it was with ketchup and mustard inside water guns before, but I had taught them to not do something like this again because I had to help them clean the stupid stains out of the house before Mrs. Diana got home.

Hearing a door open beside me Honey and Mori walked out. "Haru-chan, what happened?" questioned Honey. Taking a look at me he started to scold Hikaru and Kaoru. "How could you do this to Haru-chan. You know that red dye is really hard to get out of your hair!"

Red dye? How would Honey know this? They had done this before? If they weren't dead by the end of the day they would be close to dead by the time I was done with them.

Then, I heard a creak behind me. "Haruhi?" squeaked a voice "Are you okay?" Tamaki said as he came out from the bedroom and stepped around me. Then his jaw dropped open. "That's the…red dye."

Scoffing, I said, "What's so special about red dye. I can just wash it off really quick since it hasn't really set into my hair yet. No big deal." I continued as I shrugged while fingering my hair that was a little longer than down to my shoulder.

Clearing his throat Kyoya explained what was finally going on. "Ahem, well, you see every day in the summer on Friday Tamaki and the twins usually have a battle that they consider very "extreme." They claim that it helps them to get rid of their excess energy. This is just one of the classic things that they do every summer. The red dye will dye your hair the instant it soaks in, which was about 3 minutes after hitting your hair. It's the twin's special secret apparently." he explained. Pulling out a photo album from nowhere he showed me a picture of Tamaki with bright red hair. No, it wasn't the natural bright red, it was like if you had taken a bright red marker and squished all of the ink onto his hair. He looked miserable in that picture. "As you can see, the results aren't exactly pretty. I would suggest getting your hair cut unless you want the bottom half of your hair dyed this red until your hair grows out."

Looking back over at the twins who were still standing in shock Kaoru finally blurted out an, "I'm sorry."

Giving them a small smile I sighed, "It's just hair." And that was true. It _was _just hair. I didn't really care what people thought of my physical appearance. What did that matter? I would just cut it myself. Grabbing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt I made my way to the bathroom when I felt a hand on my leg. Yeah, I know, weird. As I looked over my shoulder I saw Tamaki crawling towards me.

Slowly he raised his head and squeaked, "I'm sorry." as he gazed at me with his puppy dog eyes. Ugh, why did he have to do that? How could you be mad at someone when they were bigger than you but still somehow managed to make themselves look like a little kid? Smiling, I said, "It's fine."

If there is one thing that I learned in life I learned to forgive people. Forgive them for taking me in and ignoring me. Forgiving for the people that had murdered my parents for trying to help someone that was getting beat up by two teenagers. Thinking of them I smiled again and gently pulled my leg away from Tamaki.

Heading over to the bathroom I hopped in the shower, cleaned myself of the flour in my face, scrubbed my hair as much as I could, and I got dressed. Taking the cloth scissors that I had brought in from my room before I went in the shower I went to work. I know that it wasn't the best way to cut hair, but I'm sure that it was cheaper than going out. Raising the scissors to my hair I was about to cut a straight line just above my shoulder when I heard a loud, surprising knock on the white bathroom door. Being a little shocked I jumped and the scissors rose about three inches as my hands closed on the handle and a clump of hair fell into my lap.

"Haruhi, can I come in?" I heard Tamaki say.

Unlocking the door I swung it open with the scissors in my hand. Looking from the scissors in my hand to my half cut hair his mouth dropped open as he yelled, "Hikaru, Kaoru, come here!"

Stepping into the bathroom he snatched the scissors from he and he put them on the sink. Moving towards me he was about to say something when he slipped on a puddle of water and stumbled into me. Falling, I landed on the rug that was near the bathtub.

"Ow." I mumbled as I tried to get up only to see a crimson blush on Tamaki's face that was currently just above mine.

"Whoa, Tono. What are you doing to Haruhi? I thought she was your "daughter." Isn't that illegal or something?" said Hikaru. "Yeah, maybe Tono's just a pervert." smirked Kaoru.

As Tamaki got up he started to talk. "I was not. If Haruhi would stand up you would see that I called you in to fix what she has done to herself…and I slipped on a puddle on accident, that's why I was um, in that position." he said as he defended himself.

Standing up I questioned him, "Why'd you call them up here? I just need to finish cutting my hair, then I can make you breakfast. Okay?"

The twins' mouths dropped open too. What was with these people? I knew they cared about how they looked, but were they that shocked that I wanted to cut my hair. With a determined look on their faces they marched into the bathroom and grabbed the scissors as they pushed Tamaki out of the bathroom.

"We've got this Tono." they said in unison as they slammed the door in his face. Quickly, they turned around to face me. "Haruhiiii why did you do this? Haven't we told you that we could cut hair, you could have just asked." whined Kaoru. As if. Some of the clothes that they wanted me to dress in were just ridiculous, imagine if the cut my hair.

Reaching for the scissors I said, "I'm just gonna cut it straight across. No big deal."

Snatching the scissors away from me Hikaru smirked at me. "No, we're going to cut your hair." "Yeah," continued Kaoru, "Aren't you always saying to finish what you started?"

Dang it. They had me trapped. Sighing I handed over the scissors and closed my eyes.


End file.
